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This editorial embodies a series of essays from the current and past editors of the Journal of Business Logistics in marking the 40th anniversary of the journal. The compendium is intended to illustrate the evolution in logistics thought and practice as well as the journal's role in documenting and advancing the field. Key trends are identified in each era. Further, each editor expresses opinions of the current and future state of the discipline. This review reflects on the evolution of the Journal of Business Logistics and envisions the futures of the logistics field and supply chain discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supply chain management is a discipline immersed in knowledge creation and dissemination concerning the integration of business processes across functions and among firms. Academics are the producers and distributors in this knowledge supply chain. The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) provides numerous opportunities to integrate functions and processes between academics and practitioners. The Journal of Business Logistics, the CSCMP Educators' Conference, the CSCMP Annual Global Conference, and CSCMP per se, provide the venue for linking academics to practice, bridging the gap between the two groups as part of the same universe of value creation. Being actively involved in all of these makes a researcher more complete, relevant, and rigorous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent months, we have participated in various discussions on the future of logistics and supply chain management ( SCM). As the newest business discipline, it is not surprising that SCM is going through growing pains and seeking to chart its future course and define a meaningful destiny. Considering professional identity-that is, who are we and what do we do-is a natural part of maturation. As JBL exists to help construct the discipline's identity, we address SCM's value-creation competence as a source of identity construction. As we explain, SCM's economic and social contributions are not just noteworthy but remarkable. Modern SCM makes a difference to the people of the world, driving economic growth and raising living standards. Truly, it is a good time to be a supply chain professional. Much research, however, needs to be conducted if we are to fulfill SCM's value-creation promise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary question of management scholarship is, 'What leads some firms to be successful even as others fail?' Over the years, a variety of dominant logics have emerged to inform this question. Synthesized, these logics make it clear that companies win when they create customer value better than the competition and efficiently enough to be profitable. That is, firms that design distinctive and dynamic value-added systems win competitive battles. This observation is salient to the Journal of Business Logistics community as systems design and value creation are focal decision areas of supply chain management. With this in mind, we briefly discuss two of many areas for which strategic supply chain research can inform differential performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors offer perspectives on the field of inventory management in business logistics. They note the applications of equilibrium theory to inventory management at the tactical level such as how much to order and when to order. They also discuss the matrix of expertise in method and topics when submitting manuscripts to the "Journal of Business Logistics." Also tackled are some important questions in logistics and supply chain management that require combinations of old and common methods.

This article discusses the role of the C-suite in logistics management and logistics research. It explores the contribution of logistics to day-to-day operations. It also analyzes the influence of supply chain management on business model design and on strategy development and execution. The importance of the C-suite in achieving customer satisfaction is discussed.

The authors discuss the relevance of a theory to business logistics and supply chain research as well as what constitutes a valuable theoretical contribution. They highlight what theory is not. They outline ideas that provide a starting point for identifying and evaluating theoretical contributions. They also suggest a three-step action plan for a better theory in supply chain research.

Purpose - Whereas inventory theory traditionally assumes the periodic review inventory model (R, T), with an order-up-to level R, has a random demand and lead time coupled with a deterministic review interval T, firms often deviate from a strict adherence to a fixed review interval when they attempt to capture transportation scale efficiencies. Employing this policy introduces additional supply chain variability. This paper aims to provide an expression for the standard deviation of demand during the protection period, important in setting safety stock, as well as an expression for the amount of order variance amplification induced by a stochastic review interval. Design/methodology/approach - Analytical modeling is used to develop the expression for the standard deviation of demand during the protection period as well as the calculation for the amount of order variance amplification induced by a stochastic review interval. Findings - In terms of the variance of demand over the protection period, a stochastic review interval has a similar effect to that of a stochastic lead time, but its impact on demand variance amplification within the supply chain differs fundamentally. Specifically, a stochastic review interval creates an order batching bullwhip effect not identified in existing literature. Research limitations/implications - This study offers an expression for the standard deviation of demand during the protection period when stochastic review intervals are employed. The expression can be used to more effectively set safety stock. The paper also offers an expression for the order variance amplification induced by a stochastic review interval. Practical implications - The study offers suggestions for retailers and suppliers regarding when the use of a stochastic review interval is effective in terms of cost efficiencies. Originality/value - While the existence and effect of lead time variability is well-established in the literature, traditional approaches the periodic review inventory model ignore the stochastic nature of review interval. This paper highlights the use of stochastic review intervals as a contributing factor to the bullwhip effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses supply chain information sharing in a vendor managed inventory partnership. Automatic replenishment programs (ARP) represent a type of inventory management designed to improve efficiency across the supply chain. ARP Programs such as Continuous Replenishment Planning, Efficient Consumer Response, Quick Response, and Vendor-Managed Inventory (VMI) can be defined as partnership initiatives based on information sharing among the members in attempts to match supply and demand as closely as possible. VMI, one of the most widely discussed initiatives for improving multi-firm supply chain efficiency, involves the vendor making the replenishment decision for products supplied to a customer based on specific inventory and supply chain policies. Information sharing between supply chain members is necessary for implementing VMI. However, information sharing in a VMI partnership raises a number of issues: different incentives and performance measures exist between the vendor and the customer; issues also arise regarding confidentiality, trust, technology investments and expenses, inventory ownership, and antitrust regulations. When supply chain members overcome these issues and jointly define the information to be shared in establishing a VMI partnership, the vendor is faced with the challenge of using that information effectively.

The article examines the logistics factors that affect retail supply chain profitability. Effective logistics requires managing tradeoffs between various costs subject to achieving target customer service levels. Specifically, retailers and their suppliers face many different cost tradeoffs and issues when making assortment decisions. In spite of this, research on the logistics of assortment in the retail supply chain is sparse. This is surprising given that research on grocery retailers has found that as many as 39% of consumers do not find at least one item they are looking for in a typical shopping trip. When coupled with the fact that the average consumer shops three or four different grocery stores per week, it is easy to see that retailers who manage the logistics issues resulting from their assortment well have an opportunity to take share from their competitors and increase their sales. Simply increasing assortment to increase returns on investment is particularly difficult in the grocery industry since the margin percentages are low and there are billions of dollars of excess inventory.

Utilizes policy capturing to analyze logistics managers' judgement structures. Absence of relationship between a manager's longevity in the firm and congruence or conflict between the manager's and chief executive officer's (CEO) judgement structures; Effectiveness of policy capturing in determining whether the manager is in congruence with the firm's goals.

Proposes an increased application of scientific survey research as a means of scrutinizing the `axioms' of logistics as well as providing clarity and dependability to the constructs common to logistics research. Logistics research; Theory; Techniques; Models; Case studies.

This article presents a logistic regression analysis of the impact of a company's labor union election outcomes on its warehousing costs and productivity. The sample includes both private and public warehouses. A private warehouse is a warehouse owned by a company for its own use. A public warehouse is a warehouse that is "for hire" and is used by many other companies for their warehousing purposes. A control variable was included in the logistic regression model in case it has an influence on the probability of a union victory. The data for this study were obtained from the National Labor Relations Board Election (NLRB) reports for the period October 1985 through September 1992. During this period, the NLRB conducted 23,683 elections. There were actually a total of 450 elections. However, there are no substantive changes in the results when all 450 are included without the dummy variable for private warehouses. Dummy variables were used to account for multiple union elections, elections where the only unions on the ballot were American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organization affiliated, elections held in Southern states.

The article examines the use of the policy capturing technique to determine the impact of judgmental structure, complexity and consistency on managerial performance in business logistics. The implementation of the supply chain concept requires several basic objectives to be met. Marketing, finance, and logistics personnel must coordinate product, information, and cash flows and make decisions concerning how they should be managed to provide value to the consumer. Logistics managers are often questioned about their perceptions of the needs of their customers, firms, and supply chain partners. Decisions made by a manager are influenced by what can be called a judgment structure, that is, by those variables that the manager believes to be important to a customer. The complexity and consistency of this judgment structure are also critical to a manager's decisions and decision making process. Policy capturing is used in business research to model human judgment and decision rules, deriving a linear model of the judgmental process. This methodology can be useful in determining whether or not a firm's managers are aware of and making decisions to support the objectives of the firm and the supply chain.

The article presents information on latent variables in business logistics. Logistics is confounded with an abundance of concepts that are not easily operationalized for scientific analysis. Variables such as customer service, partnerships, third parties, integration, and total quality management are unobservable and termed latent. Due to the difficulty of developing operational measures of latent variables, business logistics research that tests hypotheses or propositions involving such variables has been lacking. Many of today's top logistics researchers started their careers focused on transportation economics. Consequently, these researchers may not have been well versed in construct measurement and scientific behavioral research.

With the assistance of 12 guest editors, the Journal of Business Logistics ( JBL) has initiated a sequence of special topics forums ( STFs) intended to stimulate research on themes that are both fundamental and timely. In an attempt to complement the quality and depth of the impact of research published in JBL, the objective of this strategy is to continue to increase the breadth of the impact of JBL on research in our discipline. A small number of articles have the preponderance of impact: 1% of the articles published in JBL account for over 20% of all JBL citations and half of the articles account for 95% of all citations. Our selection of the STFs is aimed at increasing the breadth of impact of the research published in JBL. Each STF that is discussed in this Editorial addresses relevant and timely research questions that should have a lasting impact on theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors offer their views on the need for supply chain management professionals to be become thought and thoughtful leaders to advance logistics and supply chain management. They added that there is also a need to take stock and determine what practices can help the discipline's theory, research and education relevant. To continue to develop the profession, they believe that the potential complimentary nature of academic-practitioner partnerships should also be considered.

The authors reflect on the total cost concept of business logistics. They provide an overview of several quantitative studies and mathematical models of total logistics cost concept. They cite the primary challenges to cost measurement, including nonstationary variables where stochastic models assume stationary variables. They also suggest the use of meta-analysis to analyze the importance of various costs on logistics performance.

The article introduces the Vol. 19 No. 2, 2008 special issue of "The International Journal of Logistics Management."